Glitch | #ONC2020 ✔

Chapter Ten

Who Are You

"New guy, you gotta keep up." I scoff as the young boy in front of me sneaks around. He's probably middle school age and yet he's bossing me around like a parent. I fell a pull on my arm as the girl aggressively pulls me down. "Look, I understand that you just got out of beauty sleep and all, but you need to be able to pull your weight."

I pull my arm out of his grasp and scowl. If he got caught by the robots I wouldn't feel terrible. "Stop belittling me kid. I can move around without being caught."

The kid rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. After he rolls his eyes, I see them visibly dart around the room, searching for a possible wayward robot. "I have a name you know."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. No duh. "Really? That's a huge surprise!" Sarcastic venom shoots from my mouth every time I utter a word.

"Kael." He mutters before standing up and sneaking out of the room.

Did he just tell me his name?

I stand up and sneak out of the room as well. As my shoed feet hit the floor, my eyes dart to the side. The kid is motioning for me to hurry up, so I sneak a bit faster across the hall.

"Patient nine-million located. Location; hall three hundred eight, room six."

"Oh shit." I mutter as I see the robot in front of me. It looks absolutely terrifying. The thing is at least seven feet tall. Slight rusted metal surrounds the entire machine, making me shiver. It's head is a small screen, two LED eyes are staring back at me.

While I am frozen in absolute fear, I jump as the screen is shattered. The machine slowly falls, dust lifts up once it makes contact with the floor. I look behind myself to see my savoir. It is the same brunette girl from before, except she looks better rested. She yawns and then walks over to the boy. Her jeans wrinkle as she kneels down. "You doing okay Kael?"

He nods quickly at her. "Yeah." He looks back at the robot before whining. "Why'd you have to destroy it Aeryn? I totally had everything covered."

Aeryn laughs at the boy. She stands up again and looks at me. "What about you, um-"

"Cyrus." I interrupt her. I shrug and look back at the collapsed machine. "And yeah I'm alright."

She crosses her arms and huffs. "Well let's go. Your location has been compromised, and since you woke two weeks ago, you're still on their most wanted list."

I nod at her. Once she sees my compliance, she nods and turns around, her hair swishing back and forth. Kael stands up feebly. His clothes are now even dirtier than before. He runs a hand through his dirty blond hair and sighs. He looks back at me with a bored expression. "Great job newbie." He turns around and walks toward Aeryn.

"Cyrus."

He halts for a moment. "Nice to meet you Cyrus." He continues to walk away, leaving me alone. I look around the dark hall before running towards the other two.

My eyes glance around each cubicle we go near. Children, adults, and elderly all lay in beds that they may one day die in unknowingly.

Each person's hair flows underneath their heads like a crown. If anyone would look at only one of these people and not know any better, they would believe that they were sleeping. For they are on the brink of death.

I sigh as we try to creep around. No matter how quiet we are trying to walk, we still are still making an over abundance of noise. A breath that is a little too loud, a stumble that we do not mean to make, even an accidental sneeze.

All of this are making us stay on our toes as we await to see if we will come across another one of those machines. "Stop breathing down my neck will ya?"

"Oh, sorry!" I mutter out and jump away from Kael. I didn't even notice how close I was following him until he told me.

I hear Kael mutter out something I can't quite make out under his breath before walking a little more ahead. Aeyryn is looking at both sides of the hallway, as if awaiting for a machine to show it's great big ugly face.

Almost as if on time, I hear a crash, making me turn behind myself. A robot with eight legs, similar to a spider, is currently running towards me. My entire body freezes as I see the beast running at me.

A rock is thrown at it's screen, making it fall over. "If you're going to be useless, stay at the hideout!" Aeryn yells at me. She walks away and I awkwardly trail behind Kael.

My eyes glance in different rooms, trying to keep out of Aeryn's gaze. What I didn't expect however, was what I would find. "Aira!" I say aloud as I run into the girl's room.

There she sleeps, her red hair making almost a crown above her head. Her eyes are completely closed, but I hear her soft shallow breathing. I look at the machine that has all of her details on it. It's almost like a computer. My fingers glide against the keyboard as I search for a way to make her wait up.

"I gather you know her?" I jump at the sound of the voice. My eyes see Aeryn just leaning on the door frame. "I told Kael to go on ahead."

I turn back to the computer and continue to try and get Aira awake. "You can go on without me. Once I get her to ake up, we will both meet you at the hideout."

I feel a hand on my shoulder but I continue to try to find a way to disconnect her from the system. "Unless she's a glitch, there is nothing we can do."

I roll my shoulder, making her hand fall from my shoulder. My eyes finally sees a disconnect button so I click it. The screen turns off, making me jump back.

A groan is audible beside me so I look to the table and see Aira is actually starting to get up! I slide over to her and smile. "Wake up sleeping beauty."

She opens her eyes and looks at me. My heart starts to sink as her eyes hold no recognition of who I am. "Um, can I ask who you are?"

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